Insect Stain

Time ticked by second by second, and in the blink of an eye more than twenty minutes had passed. Long Ming stood alone on the platform, feeling rather speechless. Really, what he worried about had come to pass. But just as the wait time was about to jump to thirty minutes, the surface patterns of the mechanical obelisk at the center of the small gyro-shaped mechanical platform lit up, flashing with dazzling light. Long Ming secretly breathed a sigh of relief and focused his spirit. Immediately afterward, he was covered by white light. Several seconds later. The white light gradually faded, and Long Ming's vision gradually returned. He warily raised the M24 sniper rifle in his hand and turned to look around. The sight that met his eyes left Long Ming stunned. Long Ming found himself standing alone on a street, with reinforced concrete buildings rising on all sides. The glass curtain walls of these buildings had long since shattered, and gray bug cocoons hung from the exterior walls. The surrounding shops were in utter disarray; the merchandise in the display windows, as well as the shelves, were crawling with dark red insects. Long Ming subconsciously took a step. Click~ A crisp cracking sound rang out. Long Ming heard the noise and quickly looked down, only to see the ground covered in shriveled shed insect skins, with tiny larvae occasionally poking their heads out from the shed skins. Goosebumps rose all over Long Ming's body. He had never seen such a disgusting scene. Someone more timid would have already screamed. He then took a deep breath, suppressed his pounding heart, and carefully observed his surroundings. At this moment, he discovered that the collided vehicles, fallen streetlights, and scattered trash cans around were all covered with insect eggs of various colors. And in the sky above the city, swarms of flying insects could be seen flying past, obscuring half the sky. Watching this scene, Long Ming's expression grew increasingly grave. Although this city did not appear large in scale, it gave him a feeling of extreme danger. However, Long Ming was not frightened. As the saying goes, the timid starve, while the bold eat their fill. He should now be on a commercial street, with shops on both sides of the road: clothing stores, convenience stores, and jewelry stores. But Long Ming decisively ignored all these shops. Having undergone the baptism of the previous civilization and understanding market conditions, he knew clearly that only items, equipment, and medication above purple-tier were valuable. Everything else could be ignored. However, items above purple-tier were not easy to find. So Long Ming prepared to prioritize searching for equipment, which would also enhance his combat power. After clarifying his goal, Long Ming looked down at the map on his wristband. As expected, it was completely blank; he needed to explore and illuminate it himself. Long Ming carefully walked forward step by step. He was especially careful with every step, afraid of stepping on something. The entire street was extremely quiet, so quiet that only the sound of footsteps could be heard, causing Long Ming's nerves to be highly tense. When he passed a jewelry store, he saw that the plastic face of the mannequin in the display window was crawling with dark red insects. The windowsills were covered with disgusting sticky excrement. Inside the store, on the counters displaying jewelry and luxury goods, one could see worms crawling on the ornaments. Long Ming took a glance and had no interest at all in going in to search. Soon Long Ming reached the center of the commercial street, where a circular fountain pool stood. The fountain equipment had long stopped working; the water in the pool had long dried up, and gray fungus grew in the cracks of the stone tiles at the bottom of the pool. The benches placed around had their wooden seats hollowed out by insects, leaving only rusted metal frames. Long Ming endured and continued walking forward. After a while, Long Ming stopped in front of a three-story reinforced concrete building and looked at the sign hanging at the entrance. "Akaya Guard Station." The entire entrance to the Akaya Guard Station was open. Three dust-covered patrol motorcycles were parked on the left, one of which was lying on the ground. Not far away lay a skeleton wearing a tattered uniform. The skeleton was holding a pistol in its hand. Long Ming walked over and crouched down, preparing to reach out and take the gun when suddenly he saw a red insect with black hair crawling out from the skeleton's sleeve cuff. Long Ming jerked his hand back as if struck by an electric shock. Who knew if this thing was poisonous; if it bit him, it would be troublesome. However, this did not mean Long Ming gave up. He used the gun barrel of the M24 sniper rifle in his hand to nudge the pistol over, then picked it up. Buzz~ At this moment, a prompt popped up on Long Ming's wristband. Gecko automatic pistol. Durability: 62/100 Magazine: 5/15 Long Ming glanced at the parameters, then put the Gecko automatic pistol into his pocket. Afterwards, he walked into the Akaya Guard Station and arrived at a messy hall. Long Ming swept his gaze across. The floor of the hall was covered with spiderwebs and shriveled shed insect skins; beneath the shed skins could be seen skeletons wearing uniforms. Long Ming cautiously walked to the registration desk in the hall. He saw that the computer screen on the registration desk was shattered, and a string of keys lay on the desktop, stained with dust and sticky excrement. Long Ming looked at this string of keys, his expression shifting continuously. Finally, he reached out and picked them up, rubbed them on himself, then put them into his pocket. Immediately afterward, he walked toward the corpses lying on the ground to check if they had anything valuable on them. After a moment, Long Ming found three Gecko automatic pistols on the corpses. He raised his wristband and scanned them. The durability of the three guns was 89, 21, and 63 respectively. One gun's magazine was empty, while the other two guns were loaded with 3 and 4 bullets respectively. Long Ming removed the magazines from all the guns, took out the bullets, and loaded them one by one into the magazine of the pistol with durability 89. Immediately afterward, he threw away the pistol with durability 21. Of the remaining two, he put the best one into his pocket and the other into his backpack to sell for money. At this moment, a larva covered entirely in red patterns burst out from a shed insect skin on the ground and silently crawled toward Long Ming. Soon it reached Long Ming's feet. Just as it was about to crawl up along his shoe, Long Ming suddenly raised his foot and crushed the crawling larva to death. Sticky liquid stained the ground. Looking at the dead larva, Long Ming furrowed his brow tightly. Buzz~ Suddenly Long Ming heard a mosquito sound coming from behind him. He turned around and saw a seven-centimeter-long mosquito flying toward him. Long Ming's expression changed slightly. He immediately waved the M24 sniper rifle in his hand, trying to drive it away. Eventually, the mosquito could not get close and obediently flew away. Watching the mosquito fly off, Long Ming's expression was extremely grim. What kind of place was this? Even mosquitoes had mutated, and they were this large? If it bit me, I'd lose a lot of blood. However, he did not dwell on it and continued exploring inside. Soon Long Ming reached the stairwell. He carefully climbed up the stairs and arrived at the corridor on the second floor. Several skeletons in uniforms lay in the corridor, with rooms on both sides. (End of chapter)